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Friday, January 10, 2014

A New Reality: Between the Devil and the Deep Blue Sea

A New Reality: Between the Devil and The Deep Blue Sea

Just a few
years ago during the immediate aftermath of the Great Recession’s long tenure,
I remember a young, African American legislator on the federal level wondering
aloud how Americans would react to this financial maelstrom.He described what was to come as a true
measure of what we are as a people.“Will this upcoming crisis have us turn to
each other or turn on each other?”

The looks of
anguish and anger on the faces of those Seattle-area aerospace workers who
watched their hard-fought pensions and health benefits eviscerated in a close
51% vote to accept Boeing’s final ultimatum suggests that there is a very New
Reality at work here, in Washington, in Illinois, and everywhere.And, if “the
times they are a changin’,” it does not bode well for the many of us who
remember and honor collective bargaining and contractual promises.

Last spring
at an IEA - Retired convention, respected IEA lobbyist Will Lovett described to
an increasingly unsettled audience the great differences in the NEW Springfield
environment.“It’s not the same
anymore.There is no listening, no
sharing…it’s completely different than it used to be.”Later, Director of TRS Dick Ingram had called
this sea change in relationship between legislator and unions “the New Reality,” and began discussing how
one might communicate in this different atmosphere – to the astonishment and
ire of many, including me.

Back in
Washington State: Having been tutored by states like Illinois, nearly 21 other
states made obsequious offers of preposterous tax avoidance and other unseemly fiscal
assistance to Boeing Corp. to move the development and manufacturing of their
new airliner 777X to “their” state.This
after the International Association of Machinists in Seattle first refused the
hardball “take it or leave it” of Boeing in December as ridiculous.

After the
union’s initial snub, Boeing quickly began the evocative dance of the “New Reality,”
which involves offers of significant employment for possibly long term if the
offers of tax avoidance, fiscal gifts and payment by the state for worker
training are included.In the end,
Washington State gave nearly $8.7 billion in tax relief and other incentives to
land the teasing temptress while Boeing Corp. waved the recent past warning - production
of the 787 Dreamliner that was shipped off to South Carolina.

Of course,
Boeing appears an already wealthy ($5B in annual income) courtesan doing the
suggestive dance for various state governors to get what she (really CEO
McNerny [receives $21.1 B in annual salary] and the Board [increased dividend
to shareholders by 50%]) want, but this is the New Reality.Remember ADM, and OfficeMax, and Sears, and
CME, and Etc. have all learned how to do it.By the way, Illinois was in the game of tribute for Boeing’s
manufacturing too, although Quinn and group would not identify just how much
was offered. In fact, some have
suggested that with its consistent historical behavior, money saved in Quinn’s
and Madigan’s SB1 would be used to euchre other businesses to Illinois; this
while they figure out how to steal more from the public sector workers.

And, in the
New Reality, some of the biggest backers of accepting the Boeing demand (forget proposal) to move new workers to 401K programs, to lose on
healthcare costs, etc. were the national leaders of the International
Association of Machinists.In fact, the
rift is palpable between the two, national administrators recommending the
local vote yes to Boeing’s demands.On
the other hand, the local leaders of I.A.M. felt that too many hard-fought
concessions were being given away.Looking at the changes in the contract and the stagnation to incoming
workers eventual pay, a spokesman for the local union named Bryan Corliss
described the mistake of paying people who build airplanes as the same price
for lowest wage workers in American retail(http://www.thenewstribune.com/2014/01/02/2975148/some-workers-set-to-reach-100k.html
.Others have warned Boeing that there
will be a price to pay Washington workers who willingly bailed out
manufacturing snafus in right-to-work and unskilled South Carolina and then
received this corporate slap in the face. When we turn on each other, locals
and nationals quickly separate in the clamoring for identity and fiscal
security.

But it is
Democrats in the New Reality that truly deserve another wary look by middle
class workers, and for very good reason.What Fred Klonsky once described as a Bizarro World only endemic to
Illinois has spread like an invasive species to many other places as well – take
Washington State for example.In a
recent Bloomberg article, Justin Bachman described important lessons to be
taken from the Boeing Corp. win:Corporate threats now work.Getting the work back to Washington will make
a better plane than the “good ole boys” of South Carolina.Boeing saves more, much more than the
incentives offered to sign the contract.And…

Unions
can no longer count on the Democrats.

Local
Democrats in Washington State, like Iliinois Democrats, bent like reeds in the
wind to the demands from above (Madigan or Quinn).In the case of Washington State, they
“pleaded for workers to accept the Boeing contract and keep the company’s
workers in the region” (http://www.businessweek.com/articles/2014-01-09/boeings-victory-in-labor-fight-hurts-pensions-helps-the-777x).Likewise, in Illinois, Democrats are writing
to their constituencies that they had to vote for SB1,”Even though it was ‘the
most difficult decision in my life.’”

Subtext:workers’ unions in Illinois can no longer
count on Democrats.

And some,
like my Senator Jones(my Representative doesn’t do communication) suggest that
we can all revisit SB2404 when the Illinois Supreme Court finds SB1
unconstitutional.

Are you out of your ever-loving mind?

Do you
believe that our unions would ever revisit another variation of forced
consideration if they were to win in this upcoming court battle?We would accept the SB2404 concept, as described
by legal representative Mr. John Stevens of We Are One, “What?Choice?Whether to have you shoot me or I have to jump off the cliff?”

Madigan,
Quinn, and even you Senator Jones have played the same cruel card Boeing and
others play: Take it or leave it.Let’s turn on each other.We took your constitutionally promised
benefits and now we’re going to penalize you for our theft.

You really
think the unions will come back to the table to re-visit SB2404?I can’t imagine them doing that.That’s a New Unreality.Somewhere uncomfortably between a rock and
hard place.

6 comments:

A great post John. It is a new reality so we have to stick together and vote those out of office no matter their party. Today political parties don't matter. Neither do working people matter. They are "out of your ever-loving mind". Yes, it was a difficult decision for them, because it was wrong to steal from people. And they did it anyway.

…What if this “new reality” creates public school teachers who are willing to stop teaching in the public school classrooms across Illinois, and firemen who are willing to stop extinguishing fires in their towns and cities, and policemen who are willing to stop protecting peoples’ homes and their communities, and other state employees who are willing to stop working for the municipal and state governments? Perhaps then the citizens of Illinois would recognize the value and service that public employees of Illinois provide; perhaps the citizens of Illinois would realize that the state employees’ retirement plan is worth protecting and preserving just like the lives that these public employees have been safeguarding, supporting or assisting all along…

About Me

I am a retiree, political activist, social advocate and community volunteer. I taught at Lyons Township High School in LaGrange for 34 years in the Language Arts classroom and worked as an administrator for several years. My current avocations include various community outreach and assistance programs. Having benefitted from employment in a collegial, reflective teaching environment that encouraged dedication and professionalism, I continue to seek the promotion of education at all levels as a long-term effort combining talent, perseverance, commitment, and constant professional growth - not a blind adherence to a business model of measured production.

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